"Higher Than the Stars"

Slumberland

Artists:

At this point, the Pains' pretty great self-titled debut is only part of the story of their amazing rookie year. As great as that album's songs were, they're now making a habit of putting out B-sides and EP tracks as strong as anything on it-- and shaking off their C86 retro-indie tag in the process.

"Higher Than the Stars" remains retro as all hell-- see Mice, the Field-- but it's a slightly different flavor of retro. It takes the wistful, autumnal shyness of the Pains' debut and slathers it in a couple of layers of bright, wet gloss, then drizzles it with a synth haze that wouldn't have shamed New Order. Kip Berman's fake British accent gets more blatant every day, and he saves the song's best hook for the last minute, the climax to a build you didn't even know was happening. The lyrics evoke a very specific nostalgia for dumbshit teenage hijinks, the kind you feel even as you're still going through them because you know they can't last long. All of which is to say: This is a serious blissout jam, and if you told me this was an NME Single of the Week from, say, 1993, I would believe you absolutely. From this moment forward, nobody is allowed to call the Pains "lo-fi" ever again.